Every household has a drawer, box or case full of little assorted items — buttons, plastic bendy things, screws, small metal pipes, etc. — that are usually very inexpensive and generally considered to be junk. What would you call these things? Trifle is the closest word that I can think of but even that isn’t “junk” enough.

Do you want to stress the worthlessness/ uselessness of the stuff? It's this drawer that always comes to the rescue when you are desperately looking for that crucial missing element in your project.
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KrisOct 23 '12 at 4:56

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"the closest word I can think of". There is your problem. You're neglecting to use a thesaurus. Other people have already thinked and thinked of other words that mean the same thing, until there wazn't nothin' they ain't thunk.
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KazOct 23 '12 at 5:22

5

It is, of course, a mathom drawer: “Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom. Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort.” It’s from Old English, and is in the OED.
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tchristOct 23 '12 at 11:19

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Welcome to ELU, CHR JEN. The wide variety of answers you've gotten demonstrate the problem with your question: you haven't given us enough information to narrow down the possibilities. On all questions, but especially on single-word-requests, you need to show your work. Look up "trifle" in a thesaurus, tell us what you found there, and why you still need help narrowing it down. If you need this word for a specific purpose, tell us what that is. Don't make us quote the thesaurus at you, one word at a time.
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MarthaªOct 23 '12 at 15:45

O very good! I will try to convince my wife.
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StoneyBOct 23 '12 at 0:25

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Like most other suggestions, these too have negative connotations.
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KrisOct 23 '12 at 7:49

It's probably a result of the field I work in, but this is not the definition I think of with the word detritus. Dorland's Medical Dictionary says: "detritus - particulate matter produced by or remaining after the wearing away or disintegration of a substance or tissue; designated as organic or nonorganic, depending on the nature of the original material. biodetritus - detritus derived from the disintegration and decomposition of once-living organisms." Just be aware it has other meanings.
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JLGOct 23 '12 at 11:32

@JLG Absolutely. In fact, that is why I like it. Have you ever seen some of the flotsam and jetsam lurking in the back of those drawers? Have you heard the query of the puzzled spouse picking out a strange shard, asking "What was this?"
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bibOct 23 '12 at 11:40

In my experience, "knick-knacks" has a connotation of little decorative junk that sits on a shelf (water-snow globes, Precious Moments® statues, refrigerator magnets...) as opposed to little items kept in a drawer just in case they might be needed.
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TecBratOct 23 '12 at 10:16

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Agreed, I was going to recommend tschotskes but that has the same connotation.
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Mike BrownOct 23 '12 at 13:42

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@sacohe, you know, there's an easy way to tell if the word you're suggesting is in the dictionary or not.
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MarthaªOct 23 '12 at 15:46

I did in fact try to look it up, but it seems that online dictionaries tend to include more slang terms, possibly because they are kept more up-to-date. I didn't have a physical dictionary available to double-check.
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sacoheOct 23 '12 at 16:36

@naught101 No, I think those two definitions are fine. They should probably have a third definition (or something to clarify) that explains that trinkets don't necessarily have value. :)
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SoutaOct 23 '12 at 12:31

I would call this sort of thing a "tchotchke" (pronounced /ˈtʃɒtʃkə/ chuch-ka, plural: tchotchkes). It is originally a Yiddish word, so it might not be well known in areas without substantial Ashkenazi Jewish populations.

I think if you called it the junk drawer, just about everyone would know what you mean -- it is not knick-knacks as those are things like porcelean figurines and shot glasses, nor trinkets as those are more valuable. It's miscelaneous tools and junk that you don't throw away on the off chance that it will be useful someday.

If you've seen the definition of trinket, you'd find out that you're a bit wrong in your assumption about the value of those items. As for knick-knacks, those aren't limited to porcelain items. I think, if you are going to answer and make claims, you should have a reference to support what you say. (I'm sorry if I come across as being cross; I'm just pretty much trying to say that I believe that you have your understanding of these words, wrong. And you should probably look your claims up to be sure.)
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SoutaOct 23 '12 at 5:30

I did not limit knick-knacks to porcelain items, I simply used that (along with shot glasses) as an example, other examples would be snow globes and toy nut crackers. Trinkets are cheap items, frequently jewlery, but a cheap ring is more valuable than a burned out light bulb or a bent nail.
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jmorenoOct 23 '12 at 14:55

Either way, point being, is that you should have references to support what you claim. Especially since knick-knacks can also be, depending on the person, such items that another person would consider throwing away. As for your cheap ring/burned bulb analogy, the keyword is 'cheap'. (A shot at a bad joke: How'd you know what trinkets I have? :D)
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SoutaOct 23 '12 at 17:52

+1 This is what I call 'outside the box'. Great suggestion!
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SoutaOct 23 '12 at 5:33

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Unfortunately for those of us who grew up in coastal areas, "flotsam and jetsam" mean the nasty stuff that washes up on the beaches: trash, plastic rings from soft drinks, sea weed, drift wood.
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Roddy of the Frozen PeasOct 23 '12 at 14:58

I thought flotsam was the stuff still floating, and jetsam was the stuff that had actually washed up.
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PSUOct 23 '12 at 20:19

@PSU the literal maritime definitions can even have legal meaning, which is why I suggested a figurative usage.
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FuhrmanatorOct 23 '12 at 20:37

Paraphernalia carries no connotation of being unwanted. It's stuff that is associated with a particular activity; if that activity is, say, DNA testing, then some of the paraphernalia can be quite expensive. That said, I suppose you could apply the word to the kitchen junk drawer as a type of humorous hyperbole, but it would have a different emphasis than what I think the OP is after.
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MarthaªOct 23 '12 at 16:30

"Trappings associated with an activity regarded as superfluous" - an Oxford dictionary so some people are picking up this suggestion, perhaps only in Britain...?
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cormullionOct 23 '12 at 17:05